Because if I look. I know what she will do…now…at the sixth hour of the last day of the week. If I see her, I will have to do what she wants. Have to…

I won’t see her…

I laugh. Loudly. No. I’m not laughing. Something is laughing in me, and I know why. It is because of my…I won’t…

I won’t, and yet I know very well that I have to…have to look at her. I must…must…and then…all that follows.

If I still wait, it is only to prolong this exquisite torture. Yes, that’s it. This breathless anguish is my supreme delight. I write quickly, quickly…just so I can continue to sit here; so I can attenuate these seconds of pain.

Again, terror. Again. I know that I will look toward her. That I will stand up. That I will hang myself.

That doesn’t frighten me. That is beautiful…even precious.

There is something else. What will happen afterwards? I don’t know, but since my torment is so delicious. I feel…feel that something horrible must follow.

Think…think…Write something. Anything at all…to keep from looking toward her…

My name…Richard Bracquemont. Richard Bracquemont…Richard Bracquemont…

Richard…

I can’t…go on. I must…no…no…must look at her…Richard Bracquemont…no . .

. no more…Richard…Richard Bracque—…

The inspector of the ninth precinct, after repeated and vain efforts to telephone Richard, arrived at the Hotel Stevens at 6:05. He found the body of the student Richard Bracquemont hanging from the cross-bar of the window in room #7, in the same position as each of his three predecessors.

The expression on the student’s face, however, was different, reflecting an appalling fear.

Bracquemont’s eyes were wide open and bulging from their sockets. His lips were drawn into a rictus, and his jaws were clamped together. A huge black spider whose body was dotted with purple spots lay crushed and nearly bitten in two between his teeth.

On the table, there lay the student’s journal. The inspector read it and went immediately to investigate the house across the street. What he learned was that the second floor of that building had not been lived in for many months.

THE END

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